Sonic the Hedgehog 2 Movie Review

Sonic’s back for a second big screen adventure, and this time he’s not the only fuzzy alien on Earth. No, this time around Tails, Knuckles, and Dr. Robotnik’s exceedingly bushy moustache are all along for a race to claim the universe’s ultimate power.

From the first film to the second, we move on from Sonic’s origin story to building out his character and the universe that he lives in. He’s still a hyperactive kid, characterised with ADHD tropes like super-speed almost inevitably are, but now that he’s settled on Earth, he wants to live up to his potential. He wants to be a superhero, in other words, and who could blame him when we’re surrounded by superhero stories across TV, film and comics right now?

You can see some of the most iconic heroes being echoed through this film, from Sonic having a home in small town USA that could almost be the Kent Farm from Superman, to his scrappy attempt at stopping a robbery feeling like an early Spider-Man job, especially when Sonic’s constantly wise-cracking and has plenty of pop culture references to draw upon. Through the video games, Sonic is absolutely the hero character defeating the evil Robotnik’s plans time and again, but this movie clearly establishes that he’s a superhero in this world.

But he’s also just a kid, and one without peers, so let’s fix that, shall we? As teased in the end credits scene from the first film, Sonic’s two-tailed foxy friend Miles “Tails” Prower turns up (starring the familiar voice of Colleen O’Shaughnessey), hoping to warn Sonic (Ben Scwartz) of an imminent new danger. Of course Jim Carrey’s Dr. Robotnick is back, but he’s not alone this time and has the powerful warrior echidna Knuckles (Idris Elba) by his side ready to punch things that get in his way. From a film with one fuzzy alien, we now have three (plus Robotnik’s moustache) and this really starts to greatly flesh out the power dynamics in this universe.

You see, Knuckles has been searching for Sonic, and we learn that it’s all because of an ancient feud between different factions fighting for control over the awesome power of the Chaos Emeralds. It’s a payoff to the new origin for Sonic, the Longclaw character that sacrificed herself while shepherding him through a ring portal to Earth at the start of the first film. It’s also the McGuffin for both sides to chase after as Sonic the Hedgehog 2 dabbles with a little bit of light National Treasure-style clue hunting and ancient tomb puzzle solving, interspersed with a bunch of bombastic action set pieces as Sonic and Knuckles face off.

With all of this kicking off between the characters lifted straight out of the video games, you have to wonder where the space is for the human characters that were created for the original film. Through the first third of the film, it feels like there really isn’t all that much space at all.

At the start of the film, Tom and Maddie have provided a home for Sonic, Tom quickly shifting from the budding best friendship from the first film to being his adoptive dad. They’re quickly whisked off to attend Maddie’s sister’s wedding in Hawaii, so that Sonic has to face the returning Robotnik on his lonesome (until Tails appears, anyway). Except it feels like they’re whipping out their phones to have a quick call every five minutes, or simply cutting away from the action to see Tom and Maddie during some downtime in Hawaii.

Honestly, it’s a quite jarring, and reminds me of the lengths that the Transformers and Godzilla films go to in order to have regular humans involved in their plots. At the very least, I have to say that Sonic the Hedgehog 2 does a much better job of giving these side characters something to do. Tom takes a half step back, but it allows Maddie, Rachel, Agent Stone and even hapless Sheriff Deputy Wade to take a step forward through moments that play more to the tone of action comedy films. There’s probably still a bit too much gun-wielding for a kids film, but I guess at least they’re almost all tasers instead of actual firearms? Not that depicting someone getting tased is really Saturday morning viewing, either…

Still Sonic the Hedgehog 2 is really still about Sonic and how he grows as a character. While he desperately wants to be a hero and live up to his legacy at the start of the film, he better understands his place by the end and that he still has some growing to do. That’s helped a great deal by Tails who, while a whizz kid with countless home-brewed gadgets at his disposal, idolises Sonic like an older brother. He’s his number one fan, just like in the video games.

Knuckles, on the other hand, is a wonderfully gullible simpleton that plays brilliantly alongside the even greater eccentricities of Dr. Robotnik. Now with the shaved head and iconic brushy moustache and some more of his traditional robots, Carrey’s performance is, if anything, even more manic than the first film, while Elba effortlessly handles the comedy inherent in Knuckles’ character. Sure, Elba’s kind of having to channel Drax from the Guardians of the Galaxy, but by the end of the film, Knuckles was getting most of the laughs from the theatre. It bodes well for the Knuckles spin-off TV show.

Sonic the Hedgehog 2 opens in cinemas on 1st April 2022 in the UK, and on 8th April 2022 in the US.

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• Source: https://www.thesixthaxis.com/2022/03/28/sonic-the-hedgehog-2-movie-review/